ALBANY — Joseph L. Bruno was convicted of federal corruption charges Monday at the end of a trial that exposed a scheme by the once-powerful politician to secretly enrich himself during a 14-year reign as the state’s Senate majority leader.
The stunning conviction of Bruno on two felony charges, which could put him in prison for years, came after seven days of wrenching deliberations by a jury that had deadlocked a week ago on whether to convict him at all.

The outcome will leave a fractured legacy for Bruno, whose three decades as a popular lawmaker are indelibly etched on the region, from the baseball stadium that bears his name to the international airport that displays his bust.

Bruno, 80, showed no emotion as U.S. District Court Judge Gary L. Sharpe read the verdicts to a breathless courtroom just after 4 p.m.

Bruno’s family and supporters were crammed on one side; FBI agents and prosecutors filled the other. The audience froze as Sharpe read “not guilty” on the first two counts, and “no verdict” on the third charge of the eight-count indictment.

A prosecutor’s assistant sitting in the front row mouthed “no” and hung her head as the first two counts were read. Bruno’s lawyers, and his supporters seated behind them, appeared hopeful.

But as Sharpe reached count four and stated “guilty,” a subtle moan seeped from Bruno’s side of the courtroom. His son, Kenneth, a former Rensselaer County prosecutor, winced. On count eight, the judge again announced “guilty.” Bruno, an iron-fisted politician and former boxer, slumped slightly.

“The prosecutors and agents involved in this case take no pleasure from what the trial revealed about the culture of the New York state Senate, under the leadership of Joseph L. Bruno,” said Andrew T. Baxter, the acting U.S. Attorney for New York’s Northern District.

It was on Baxter’s watch last fall that the federal grand jury investigation heated up and lead to the indictment of Bruno in January on eight counts of theft of honest services fraud. The Brunswick Republican, who was accused of hiding $3.2 million in illicit payments in exchange for his political muscle, waged a fierce defense, spending an estimated $1.5 million or more in legal fees, tapping leftover campaign funds and donations from supporters.

“I’m very, very disappointed in the verdict that I just heard,” Bruno said as he left the courthouse. He was released without bail pending his sentencing March 31.

Bruno did not testify in his defense and instead stood in front of the federal courthouse each trial day, peering into television cameras while stating he had done nothing wrong. He joked with reporters but would not answer questions, taking hard shots at the federal government for what he deemed an “overzealous” prosecution built from a controversial statute facing review from the U.S. Supreme Court.

But the jubilation was gone as Bruno emerged from the courthouse ashen-faced, stopping just briefly to make his statement before being pulled away by his handlers. Bruno’s eyes were downcast in the lights of cameras as he was driven away in a black vehicle.

The conviction of Bruno follows an aggressive FBI investigation that dogged the rags-to-riches political figure in his final years at the helm of the state Senate he controlled from 1995 until his abrupt resignation last year.

The trial was a tedious examination of the oft-shadowy state Legislature, which has exempted itself from the state’s Freedom of Information Law and set its own rules allowing the public only limited or no access to its ethics opinions and financial disclosure forms.

Indeed, the trial of Bruno revealed there was no line between his private business dealings and political duties. The testimony revealed Senate lawyers and other government workers routinely shouldered everything from Bruno’s Christmas shopping and banking to the negotiation of his private consulting contracts. Hundreds of exhibits provided an unprecedented look inside Bruno’s Senate and business affairs dating to 1993, two years before he seized control of the Republican majority and became one of the state’s three most powerful political figures.

Bruno was acquitted of the top count in the indictment, which centered on his receipt of $1.37 million from Wright Investors’ Service and another $632,116 from an Albany investment banker. Wright, a Connecticut investment firm, had won hundreds of millions of dollars of pension investments from New York labor union leaders and fiduciaries who were solicited with Bruno’s help.

The jury deadlocked on a charge alleging money Bruno took from a Westchester County businessman, Leonard J. Fassler, who was seeking state government contracts and whose various telecommunications companies paid Bruno some $468,000 in consulting fees over a decade.

In a similar consulting deal with Loudonville businessman Jared Abbruzzese, whose private jet flights for Bruno triggered the FBI probe in late 2005, the jury simply couldn’t accept that Bruno had done anything for the money, according to a juror reached by the Times Union.

The count related to $200,000 in payments that Bruno received from two limited liability corporations controlled by Abbruzzese beginning in 2004. The $20,000-a-month payments were later shifted to two telecommunications companies controlled by Abbruzzese, Motient Corporation and TerreStar Networks, but the jury acquitted Bruno on the charges related to those payments.

Still, the panel concluded Bruno did not nothing in return for $200,000 Abbruzzese paid him through his companies, Communication Techology Advisors and Capital & Technology Advisers. The money was being paid to Bruno as he authorized a $250,000 state grant to a technology firm bankrolled by Abbruzzese.

The payments also came before Abbruzzese’s business partner, Wayne Barr, was appointed by Bruno to the New York Racing Association board of trustees. Abbruzzese, who at that time was seeking control of the franchise that runs New York’s top three horse racing tracks, had turned down Bruno’s offer to fill the seat.

The second conviction stemmed from Bruno’s dealings in an undisclosed horse-breeding partnership with Abbruzzese and Jerry Bilinski, a Columbia County veterinarian. Abbruzzese conceded on the witness stand that he had agreed to pay Bruno $80,000 for a horse the government characterized as “virtually worthless.”

The payment, Abbruzzese said, was intended as his “global solution” to the fact a telecommunications company once controlled by Abbruzzese, TerreStar Networks, had terminated a $20,000-a-month consulting contract with Bruno after executives questioned what he was doing to earn the money. The early termination cost Bruno $80,000. Abbruzzese admitted he bought the overpriced horse to make up the difference, and at a time when he was seeking the state’s NYRA franchise.